Patent Documents 1 to 8, published by the Japan Patent Office, propose using a lithium battery or an electric double layer capacitor as a storage cell that can be charged and discharged repeatedly.
Referring to FIGS. 33 and 34, an example of a storage cell will be described. A storage cell 100 includes a storage unit 111 that stores a charge, and a container 112 that houses the storage unit 111.
The storage unit 111 includes a positive electrode body, a negative electrode body, and a separator interposed between the positive electrode body and the negative electrode body. The storage unit 111 is formed from an angular laminated body. The positive electrode body and negative electrode body are constituted by an electrode layer that stores a charge, and a collector layer that outputs and inputs the charge. The positive electrode body and the negative electrode body are respectively formed by bundling together identical poles of the collector layer and then joining and electrically connecting an electrode terminal 113 of a corresponding polarity to a resulting bundled portion.
The electrode terminal 113 is formed from a metal plate in a shape having a short length. A first end portion of the electrode terminal 113 is positioned in the interior of the container 112. The bundled portion of the identical poles of the collector layer is joined to the first end portion of the electrode terminal 113. A second end side of the electrode terminal 113 is drawn directly out to the exterior of the container 112. The container 112 is formed from a laminate film, or more specifically a resin film having a laminated structure and including a metallic intermediate layer. The container 112 is tightly sealed while housing the storage unit 111 so that a tip end side of each electrode terminal 113 projects partially to the outside.
The container 112 is constituted by a pair of container members, for example. When the pair of container members are combined, a chamber for housing the storage unit 111 is defined. The storage unit 111 is housed in the interior of the chamber in the container such that the tip end side of the electrode terminal 113 projects to the outside from a flange surrounding the chamber. As shown in FIG. 34, the container 112 is sealed by thermally bonding flanges 112a to each other, whereby the storage unit 111 is housed and tightly sealed such that the tip end side of each electrode terminal 113 partially projects to the outside from a sealing surface of the container 112, or in other words substantially in a thickness direction center of the container 112. In the figure, A, B, and C respectively denote a front surface, a left side surface, and an upper surface of the container 112.